On This Day in #F1: 5th January 1993 – Mansell stuns America

Isolationism; a doctrine that had served America for decades was in full force when the Briton arrived. He was the reigning Formula One World Champion and yet was judged as a rookie by the American press and spectators alike. To this day, to hear the local commentators express surprise at his ability is astonishing.

Nigel Mansell was the Marmite man. You either loved him or loathed him but very few were indifferent to the theatre he brought to motor racing back in the eighties and nineties.

Twenty two years ago, he took the to the track in an Indycar for the first time and ended the day with the lap record to his name; an auspicious start to his stateside career.

After the ‘Senna’ Indycar test of a few weeks earlier – Mansell was never going to simply work his way into the sport and this was borne out with the ensuing season mirroring his entire career.

He would win in dominant fashion, survived a huge crash on an oval – which supposedly injured his back – missed out on winning the Indy 500 because of his inexperience with rolling starts and then won at Michigan, a harder challenge than the Indy oval.

And whilst doing all this built himself an army of fans that delighted in his combative driving abilities; establishing records unlikely to ever be matched.

He became the first ever rookie to take pole and the victory in his first race.

He would claim the championship at his first attempt and for a period of weeks, was both the Formula One World Champion and the Indycar Champion.

Whilst it is a possibility that a rookie could win on his debut and repeat Mansell’s historic achievements, the likelihood of a reigning Formula One champion defecting to the States becomes more and more unlikely as the Indycar championship is seemingly in terminal decline.

An engineer was once quoted by a zealous journalist as saying of Mansell, “I believe he is actually misunderstood. I have always found him to be a balanced individual, he has a chip on both shoulders!”

This mis-use of a journalistic platform actually says more about the British journalistic profession – and their belittling attitude – than it does about this brave warrior.

Mansell was a brilliant talent, one that commanded the full respect of a certain Senna. He was adored by race goers the world over and was named IL Leone ( the Lion ) by the tifosi when he raced for Ferrari.

Yet the arrogant media seemingly never forgave him for being from Birmingham and being christened Nigel rather than Stirling, Damon or James with their private educations.

Mansell sold his home to pay for his progression to the pinnacle of motor-sport, overcame a broken neck and a number of other obstacles, yet the British media continues to portray him as a commoner with luck rather than use his example as an inspiration for others.

His team-mate over the 1993-94 seasons was veteran Mario Andretti: ” I guess if Ronnie Peterson was the best team-mate I ever had, Nigel Mansell was the worst. I had a lot of respect for him as a driver, but not as a man.”

Lest we forget, this was a man who demanded Peterson subvert his ambitions to the Andretti legend in 1978..

Also worth noting: The 1993 Indycar season had more F1 champions on the grid than F1 itself 🙂 Emmo, Mario and Nigel in ‘murrica vs Senna and Prost in F1 and had Piquet not had his career ending crash in an Indycar test the year before, it could even have been a 4:2 ratio.
1992 had been the beginning of the Williams dominated years and with a decrepit Prost walking the F1 championship, Indycars were becoming a serious contender to F1. Of course that was until Tony George and his henchmen came in 1996 and killed Indycars off for good…

there was a time when I considered CART to be the finest racing series ever. for the only time from 1962 to the present time, I totally ignored everything F! as being irrelevant, snooty, and self-serving, with too little talent to bother with. not saying I was entirely correct:) come to think of it, the above in some manner speaks volumes of today as the WEC is holding more and more interest. maybe TJ13 should cover WEC exclusively. the drivel of F1 could be covered by TJ13Lite.com LOL.

“He was the reigning Formula One World Champion and yet was judged as a rookie by the American press and spectators alike.”
Because he was a rookie and it was CART or Indy Car World Series not IndyCar.

sorry I do not remember the year or feeder series to Indy racing, but saw Arie do things with the car nobody else could even imagine on the Lakefront at Cleveland. I knew then he would go on and carve out a great career…

No, no popcorn. I met and talked with Arie and I quickly formed an opinion (also held by his crew, if rumors were true) that he was a pompous ass; nothing, over the years, ever dissuaded me from that view. He might have been a good driver, but he was not a wonderful person. We each have our own views of others and they may differ.